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Charity begins at home

Americans have lost their minds. Forgive me for not expending any of my emotional energy or shedding any tears for those illegals coming into America. No, I can’t get all wrapped up in the plight of all the illegal children whose derelict parents are sending them thousands of miles on a dangerous journey alone.

I can’t help but to invest my emotion into citizens who have lost family members because someone in the country illegally was involved in a drunken driving incident; or whose daughter was raped by an illegal; or whose home was broken into by an illegal. I can’t feel sorry for kids in Central America or worry about their plight when you have American kids who are homeless and no one seems to care about them.

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the number of children in the United States is 74.2 million, this at an all-time high. However, the share of the national population who are children (24 percent) is at an all-time low. Based on this data, 54 percent of these children are White, 23 percent are Hispanic, 14 percent are Black, and 4 percent are Asian. Furthermore, though Black children are only 14 percent of the population, they are 27 percent of all children in the foster care system, according to the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care. Disturbingly, they stay in the system longer than any other demographic.

There is a record 1.16 million students in the United States who were homeless last year, according to U.S. Department of Education. That’s just 100,000 shy of matching the population of Dallas. Were the homeless a city, they would be larger than San Francisco, San Jose, Indianapolis or Charlotte. They would be larger than St. Louis, New Orleans and Pittsburgh combined.

The states with the largest increases of homeless students were: California, New York, Texas, and Florida. That should come as no surprise because these are the same states with the largest population of people in the U.S. illegally.

The Obama administration has encouraged a flood of illegal children to trek across Central America through Mexico into the U.S. because they have made it perfectly clear that they will not enforce our immigration laws. This public declaration has put our own kids at dire risk. According to Reuters, “An estimated 60,000 such children will pour into the United States this year, according to the [Obama] administration, up from about 6,000 in 2011. Now, Obama is trying to figure out how to pay for their food, housing, schooling and transportation.

So, with this backdrop, can someone tell me again why I am supposed to feel sorry for these illegals?

I am sick and tired of hearing all the sad sob stories. It’s not America’s fault that other countries have high levels of crime. We have our own problems. Have you been to Chicago lately? It’s not America’s fault that other countries have few jobs. Have you seen the Black unemployment rate? It’s not America’s fault that families have made the decision to enter into the U.S. illegally and be separated from their family. Have you seen our foster care system lately?

You want to hear about sad stories? Let’s try this one. In June of 2013, Arizona policeman, Daryl Raetz, was killed in a DUI crash by an illegal who was drunk and on cocaine. He left the scene, but the police later caught him and found he had been deported earlier but reentered the country.

Here’s another one: In August 2012, an illegal drunk driver killed Sister Denise Mosier on a Virginia highway. The illegal driver was a repeat offender who was awaiting deportation and whom federal immigration authorities had released pending further proceedings. He had been arrested two other times on drunken-driving charges and on at least one of those occasions county police reported him to federal authorities. At the time, he was in the deportation process and released on his own recognizance.

One final story: Last year, an illegal raped a preteen girl and forced her to have an abortion. He was sentenced to less than seven years in jail and permanently barred from the U.S. after completing his sentence.

And the Pope is the last person I want addressing a moral or humanitarian crises after the silence of his church while little boys were being raped.

We are a compassionate country. However, our compassion is being misdirected in this case. Charity begins at home, not on the order side of the border.

Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a Washington, D.C.-based public relations/government affairs firm. He can be reached through his Web site, http://www.raynardjackson.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @raynard1223.